The memorable milestones that shaped Berkeley Lab's 65 years of
history will be recollected in a series of five one-hour noontime programs next
week in the Bldg. 50 auditorium. All employees and guests are invited to
attend.

The lecture series is one of several special events commemorating the founding
of the Laboratory on Aug. 26, 1931, when it began as Ernest Orlando Lawrence's
"Radiation Laboratory" on the UC Berkeley campus (see adjoining schedule).

Nobel Laureate Glenn Seaborg, the discoverer of 10 transuranic elements and
current associate-director-at-large, will reflect upon the Laboratory's first
few decades in his Monday address. Later that afternoon, he will be
autographing periodic tables for distribution to everyone who purchases a
"seaborgium" lapel pin. Proceeds from the sale, to be held at the opening of
the Lab's new memorabilia exhibit from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Bldg. 50 lobby, will
support the high-school Chemathon, one of Seaborg's favorite education
projects.

On Tuesday, historic film footage from the Lab's early days will be featured in
a video program in the Bldg. 50 auditorium. Two documentaries will be shown,
one on the Bevatron and another that was produced as part of the Lab's 50th
Anniversary in 1981. Additional clips will show the final days of the old "Rad
Lab" and Nobelist Melvin Calvin discussing his photosynthesis discoveries. As a
special treat, popcorn and soft drinks will be sold at 1931 prices.

The three directors who have guided Berkeley Lab through its last two decades
will share the stage on Wednesday. Current Director Charles Shank will welcome
back his predecessors, Andrew Sessler and David Shirley. Sessler, who is still
a scientist in AFRD, widened the Laboratory's research interests during his
tenure from 1973 to 1980. Shirley, senior vice president for research and dean
of the Graduate School at Penn State University, continued the Lab's scientific
diversification from 1980 to 1989 and helped secure the Advanced Light Source
program for Berkeley.

Thursday will witness the return of another former Lab administrator, the DOE's
Office of Energy Research Director Martha Krebs. The Lab's associate director
for planning and development from 1983 to 1993, Krebs will speak as part of her
annual on-site review of program planning at the Laboratory.

Biomedical scientist Tom Budinger will conclude the series on Friday. Beginning
at the dedication of the new Biomedical Isotope Facility at 11 a.m., Budinger
will pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of nuclear medicine. His noon talk
will focus on the critical part Berkeley Lab played in this legacy, in
particular the use of radioisotopes in health diagnosis and therapy.

All talks are scheduled to be broadcast on the Internet via the MBone.

The science that cracked open the atom, imaged the birth of the
universe, and is helping decipher the human genetic code is now being brought
to bear upon one of the nation's most intractable problems--environmental
remediation. Berkeley Lab researchers were among the big winners on Tuesday,
Aug. 20, when Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary announced the awarding of the
first competitive grants from the Environmental Management Science Program
(EMSP).

In all, 138 EMSP grants were awarded to 11 national laboratories and 52
universities, plus private and public R&D organizations. Eight of the
Berkeley Lab proposals were selected, and are slated to receive more than $8.5
million between now and FY99.

EMSP is a three-year program with a total funding of $112 million. Jointly
developed by DOE's Office of Energy Research (ER) and the Office of
Environmental Management (EM), EMSP is an effort to marshall the scientific and
engineering expertise of the national laboratories and the research
universities against some of the nation's most persistent and costly
environmental problems.

"These grants will help the scientific community focus on solving one of our
most difficult environmental challenges--cleaning up the legacy of 50 years of
nuclear weapons production," said Secretary O'Leary in making her announcement
during a nationwide televideo conference.

EMSP has been endorsed by the National Academy of Sciences and enjoys strong
bipartisan support in Congress. Vice President Al Gore called it a "first of
its kind program based on President Clinton's and my strong belief that solving
environmental problems leads to economic opportunity--by creating new
technologies, new businesses, and new jobs."

ER Director Martha Krebs said that more than 800 grant proposals were screened
by a joint ER/EM committee under a highly competitive peer-review process.

"People said the marriage between ER and EM would be one of controlled
tensions," she said, "but we've shown the ability to cooperate in reaching out
to get the best qualified people from all over the country."

The grants awarded to Berkeley Lab involved more than 20 researchers across
several divisions, including Earth Sciences, Energy and Environment,
Engineering, Life Sciences, and Materials Sciences. Funding for individual
proposals ranged from $1,537,000 to $550,000. Winners included:

Currents will
provide detailed stories on these proposals in the coming months and follow
their results.

Berkeley Lab was not the only California-based research organization to do well
in the EMSP grant competition, though it was the most successful. In addition
to the grants coming here, there are 22 other grants worth approximately $14.5
million heading for California.

The other institutes receiving grants were Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, the UC campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San
Diego; Cal Tech and Stanford Universities, Rockwell International and Scripps
Research Institute, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Over the next two months, Berkeley Lab's shuttle bus system will
undergo a facelift that promises to make it easier for visitors, as well as
employees, to recognize the buses and to find specific locations around the
Hill.

The 13 on-site and off-site buses will be repainted with the Lab's name, logo,
and signature colors (teal and blue on a white background). In addition, new
signs will be erected to designate boarding locations both off-site and on the
Hill. The off-site "Berkeley Lab" signs will be affixed to city AC Transit
poles for easy identification. On-site shuttle stops will be designated by
station numbers and will list key buildings and centers near the bus stops.

A new service route brochure with easy-to-read transit maps will identify the
stops, schedules and service hours. The brochures, which will be available in a
few weeks, will be distributed on buses, at the Reception Center (Bldg. 65), in
the cafeteria, and at selected shuttle stops.

All current schedules and stops will stay the same, including the recently
adjusted off-site route between Bldg. 62/66 and the UC Berkeley campus.

As of June, "yellow flag" buses that ran every 15 minutes between Bldg. 62/66
and the Hearst Mining Circle on campus have been discontinued. It their place,
Berkeley campus buses stop every half hour at Bldg. 62/66 and at the Strawberry
gate on their runs between the Hearst Mining Circle and the Space Sciences
Laboratory on Centennial Drive. The buses also stop at the Lawrence Hall of
Science.

"We adjusted the departure times to accommodate the class schedules of students
and faculty commuting between the Lab and campus," said shuttle bus supervisor
Tammy Brown. "We also extended the service hours to begin earlier and run later
in the day." She said this route had been averaging about 250 riders per day.

The Berkeley Hill Shuttle (formerly the "yellow flag" bus) now begins its
service at 7:40 a.m. at the downtown BART station (in front of Bank of
America). It arrives and leaves the Hearst Mining Circle 15 minutes before and
after the hour and concludes with a 6:30 p.m. departure from the Lawrence Hall
of Science.

Brown said a recent grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District
will allow certain innovations and improvements to the transportation system,
including upgrades of bus bicycle racks.

Ben Feinberg, manager for Berkeley Lab's "Necessary & Sufficient" (N&S)
project, is asking all Laboratory employees to assist his teams in gathering as
much relevant input as possible. Specifically, he seeks suggestions on which
regulations in environment, safety and health the Laboratory is following that:

impede or hinder research, and/or

are of no value in protecting the worker (yourself), the public, or the
environment.

Responses may be forwarded to Feinberg (B_Feinberg@lbl.gov) or
Cynthia Tilden (CKTilden@lbl.gov). You may also use the form on the web at
http://www.lbl.gov/Workplace/NS-Program/ (the "Necessary and Sufficient" website).

The Republican Party platform adopted at their national convention
supported presidential candidate Bob Dole's call for abolishing the Department
of Energy. Eliminating DOE would "emphasize the need for greater privatization
and ... reduce the size of the federal government," according to the platform's
language. Republicans do not specify which DOE programs should be eliminated,
but advocate transferring defense programs to the Defense Department and
farming out "necessary" non-defense programs to other federal agencies.

NEUTRON SCIENTISTS FACE DOWNSIZED EXPECTATIONS:

The bitter pill that high energy physicists swallowed with the
cancellation of the SSC is now being tasted by scientists who use neutrons to
study the structure of materials. The United States pioneered neutron science
in the 1940s, but today Europe and Japan are where the action is. All of the
major U.S. research reactors are more than 25 years old, and the accelerators
used in this research at Los Alamos and Argonne were built in the early 1980s.
After Congress canceled the $3 billion Advanced Neutron Source proposed for Oak
Ridge National Laboratory in 1995, researchers followed up with a proposal for
a much smaller spallation source that could be upgraded in the future. The
scaled-back proposal would "only" cost $1 billion, but Martha Krebs, director
of DOE's Office of Energy Research, has all but declared it dead. Now, the
neutron science community has countered with a plea to upgrade three existing
facilities to make them somewhat competitive with those abroad. This request
would cost $250 million, but Krebs says even that may be too much. "Whether we
can deliver this plan is a matter of discussion," she told the journal
Science.

LONGER DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT:

Scientists report that the moon, as it moves away from Earth, is
stretching out the length of a day. Measuring the thickness of ancient
tidalites--sediment left by the rise and fall of the lunar tides--revealed that
900 million years ago, days were only 18.2 hours long. The length of a year,
however, was 481 days.

THE BITE OF T-REX:

Gregory Erickson, a UC Berkeley biologist, has demonstrated that the
jaws of a Tyrannosaurus Rex were powerful enough to crush the bones of its
victims with "all the force of a pickup truck." Paleontologists have long
debated whether the 10,000 pound "tyrant lizard" was a fearsome predator or
cumbersome scavenger. Scavenger proponents argued that despite the massive size
of T. Rex's jaw, with its rows of razor-sharp six-inch teeth, the giant meat
eater had a weak bite and could not kill its own prey. Erickson's tests,
however, have shown that a T. Rex bite could exert more than 1,440 pounds of
force--enough to crunch through even the armor plating of a Triceratops.

IDS Couriers is the Lab's contract courier service, operating 24 hours a day
with pick-up and delivery service anywhere in the Bay Area. For service, call
548-3263 with pick-up/delivery locations, time requirements, and a valid Lab
account number.

Two independent groups of foreign scientists visited Berkeley Lab
on Thursday, Aug. 8, as part of their fact-finding tours of supercomputer
centers in the United States. The seven Germans and three Koreans spent half a
day at the NERSC computer facility (National Energy Research Scientific
Computing Center) to learn more about current trends in supercomputer
technology, understand how to manage such a facility, and develop an integrated
vision about the role of these state-of-the-art tools in scientific research.

The German group was comprised of professors and directors of supercomputer
centers at institutions in Ulm, Hohenheim, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe,
Tuebingen, and Stuttgart. Two of the Korean scientists came from the Korean
Science and Engineering Research Center and one from Sogang University. They
are in the process of building their country's national supercomputer center,
which they plan to model on the American prototypes.

Although the timing of their visits was coincidental, the fact that such
eminent scientists chose to visit the supercomputer center at Berkeley Lab may
be indicative of the prestige enjoyed worldwide by NERSC.

"By moving NERSC to Berkeley and reinventing it," said Horst Simon, director of
the Lab's NERSC Division," the Center has generated worldwide attention,
particularly in Europe and Asia."

NERSC was transferred to Berkeley Lab from Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory last November under the leadership of William McCurdy. One of the
largest unclassified computer resources in the country, the Center serves
thousands of researchers at universities, national laboratories, and in private
industry in the U.S. and in several foreign countries.

CAPTION: NERSC's Horst Simon gives a group of German professors and
supercomputer center directors a tour of the facility.

Instead of heading to the recycling bin or landfill, some surplus
lab equipment may be heading to the museum or jeweler's display, thanks to
Berkeley Lab pollution prevention specialist Shelley Worsham.

A chunk of glass from one of the Lab's mammoth microscopes will be turned into
museum pieces by a glass artist; circuit boards from outdated computers will be
crafted into jewelry and wall hangings.

The deal to turn surplus glass into art came out of Worsham's trip to Colorado
last Christmas. While at a gallery filled with glass art in Aspen, Worsham
happened to tell the gallery owner about some of the surplus of glass stored at
Berkeley Lab--a 500-pound optical lens of Pyrex and an 800-pound cube of leaded
glass.

The Aspen shop owner told Worsham about glass artist Ted Emrick in Morro Bay,
who specializes in creating intricate pieces of art from plate glass. Thanks to
the holiday encounter, Emrick will be getting both surplus slabs of the
Laboratory's glass--plus some leaded glass shielding blocks--to turn into works
of art.

According to Worsham, the deal will save a significant amount of space in a
landfill at the cost of a few hours of paperwork.

Since teaming with Emrick, Worsham has found artistic outlets for Berkeley
Lab's surplus glass closer to home. "The California College of Arts and Crafts
in Oakland will be getting tempered glass from old windows and doors," she
said. "Why not let people in the community use what the laboratory cannot?"

The insides of old Lab computers, on the other hand, are headed north to
Oregon. Worsham has arranged for circuit boards to be sent to the Transistor
Sister & Company, an off-beat enterprise that uses the old parts to create
earrings, clocks and other crafts.

Typically, if not sold or given to a school, outdated Laboratory computers are
retired to the recycling bin. The Lab gets about a dollar and a half per pound
for the materials--not much, says Worsham, when you consider the gold and other
metals they contain.

"The Transistor Sister owner asked me to set aside the prettiest circuit
boards," Worsham said. "When I asked what he meant by prettiest, he just said,
`you'll know.'" The company also use capacitors, fuses and resistors to make
their special art.

Lab employees received some of the final product when 13 of the circuit board
creations were given out as pollution prevention awards during April's Earth
Month activities. Other surplus boards may end up at the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington, D.C., or the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where
the company sells their wares.

For more information on pollution prevention and recycling opportunities for
surplus Berkeley Lab materials, contact Shelley Worsham at X6123 or
SAWorsham@lbl.gov.

CAPTION: Morro Bay artist Ted Emrick used pieces of surplus glass from the
Lab to create the glasswork sitting atop the pedestal.

You may not find high fashion Nikes, Reeboks or cowboy boots at
this convenient shoe stop. But for the safety-conscious Lab staff, the
Shoemobile has become a popular fixture, shodding employees working in
potentially hazardous conditions with a wide variety of safety footwear. Every
other week or so, the "shoe store on wheels" camps in front of Bldg. 79, where
Lab employees can select occupationally-specific footwear that meets their
individual needs and tastes.

The wearing of safety shoes is encouraged by the Lab and is required by federal
and Lab regulations for certain types of work. For instance, safety shoes
protect employees working with hot, corrosive, or poisonous substances or
anyone exposed to dangers from electricity, construction, equipment handling,
falling objects, or an abnormally wet work environment.

Since 1990 the shoes have been supplied by the Lehigh Safety Shoes company in
Sunnyvale. Bobby Co, the Shoemobile driver, helps you find the right size and
style for your particular needs. The shoes and boots come in 50 to 60 different
styles, and have either steel or plastic toes. Prices range from $50 to $120.

When safety shoes are required, the Laboratory will subsidize up to $80 towards
the cost of the shoes. The maximum amount is adjusted periodically to reflect
the average cost of safety shoes. The employees pays the difference, if any.
Under normal circumstances, the Lab will provide no more than one pair each
year, although shoes may be replaced more frequently when work conditions deem
it necessary. A special approval from the supervisor is needed in that case.

To purchase shoes, you must obtain a safety shoe allowance form from the Lab's
Environmental Health and Safety division and have it signed by your department
head. Cash, check and credit cards are accepted.

The Shoemobile will be on site from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the following
dates: Sept. 12 and 23, Oct. 3 and 21, Nov. 7 and 18, and Dec. 5 and 16. Check
the Currents calendar for any schedule updates.

CAPTION: Shoemobile driver Bobby Co fits an employee with a new pair of
safety shoes. Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt

See what happens when two million pieces of K'NEX, the popular building
materials, come together for awesome visual displays and activity areas for the
whole family. Incredible life-size dioramas feature working machines, a
scaled-down amusement park, and a living room complete with the family dog, all
made entirely of K'NEX parts.

The unique building materials reveal the true inner-workings and engineering of
each structure and machine. Interactive work stations filled with virtually
unlimited building parts provide background information about science and math
themes, and instructions to design and construct your own machines, vehicles,
contraptions, and creatures. K'NEXPLORATION focuses on four major science and
math themes: force, motion and gravity; strength, shapes and geometry; simple
and complex machines; and adaptation. An optional weigh/pay program is offered
so builders can purchase the models they have made and take them home. The
exhibit runs through Sept. 8.

The Berkeley Lab Calendar is published biweekly here on the World
Wide Web and in Currents by the Public Information Department.
Employees can list a meeting, class, or event in the Calendar by using this
submission form. The deadline for
submissions is 5 p.m. on Monday in the week that Currents is published.

Calendar items may be sent via e-mail to
currents_calendar@lbl.gov, Fax to X6641, or Lab mail to Bldg. 65B. The
deadline is 10:30 a.m. Tuesday

MON., AUG. 26

65TH ANNIVERSARY LECTURE

Associate Director at Large Glenn Seaborg will speak on the first three
decades of the Laboratory, at noon in the Bldg. 50 Auditorium.

SURFACE SCIENCE AND CATALYSIS SCIENCE SEMINAR

"Organocobalt Intermediates of Carbonylations Catalyzed by Cobalt" will
be presented by Gyula Palyi of the Universita di Modena, Italy, at 1:30 p.m. in
the Bldg. 66 Auditorium.

65TH ANNIVERSARY RECEPTION

A new exhibition of historic scientific memorabilia will be unveiled in
a remodeled Bldg. 50 Lobby, 3-5 p.m.; refreshments.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

"Interfacial Behavior of Random Heteropolymers" will be presented by
Arup Chakraborty of LBNL/UCB at 4 p.m. in the Pitzer Auditorium, Latimer Hall;
refreshments 3:30 p.m.

STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY SEMINAR

"Membranes, Some Proteins and Their Interactions" will be presented by
Yeon-Kyun Shin at 4 p.m. in 102 Stanley Hall.

EMPLOYEE MUSIC CLUB

Classical Group Rehearsal, 5-7 p.m. in the cafeteria, for info. contact
Wesley Steele at X7893.

TUES., AUG. 27

EH&S CLASS

Compressed Gas Safety (EHS 231), 10:30-11:30 a.m., Bldg. 51-201

65TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Showing of historic video program, "Bevatron" and film highlights from
the early days, at noon in the Bldg. 50 Auditorium; popcorn and soft drinks at
1931 prices.

LBNL LIBRARY TRAINING SESSION

Electronic Journals will be offered at 3 p.m. in Bldg. 62-339

LIFE SCIENCES DIVISION SEMINAR

"Integrins and Proteases in Angiogenesis" will be presented by David J.
Cheresh of Scripps Research Institute at 4 p.m. in the Bldg. 66 Auditorium.

PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY SEMINAR

"Free Radicals at 60,000 Feet: Implications for Global Ozone" will be
presented by Ronald C. Cohen of UCB at 4 p.m. in the Pitzer Auditorium, Latimer
Hall.

WED., AUG. 28

EH&S CLASS

Earthquake Safety (EHS 135), 10-11:30 a.m., Bldg. 48-109

LBNL LIBRARY TRAINING SESSION

Electronic Journals will be offered at 11 a.m. in Bldg. 50-134

65TH ANNIVERSARY LECTURE

David Shirley and Andrew Sessler, former Lab Directors, will speak on
recollections about science, Berkeley Lab and their roles in shaping its
evolution ('60s-'80s), at noon in the Bldg. 50 Auditorium.

ALS/CXRO SEMINAR

"Nanowires at Stepped Surfaces" will be presented by Franz Himpsel of
the University of Wisconsin at Madison at 4:10 p.m. in Bldg. 2-100B.

EMPLOYEE MUSIC CLUB

Folk Group Rehearsal, 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the cafeteria, for info. contact
Larry Bell at X5406.

FRI., AUG. 30

Tom Budinger will speak on the 100-year anniversary of nuclear medicine
and Berkeley Lab's pioneering role in it at noon in the Bldg. 50 Auditorium.

INORGANIC CHEMISTRY SEMINAR

"The Influence of Molecular Precursor Design on Materials Synthesis: CVD
of Metal Sulfide Films" will be presented by Mark J. Hampden-Smith of the
University of New Mexico at 4 p.m. in the Pitzer Auditorium, Latimer Hall.

MON., SEPT. 2

LABOR DAY HOLIDAY

TUES., SEPT. 3

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY SEMINAR

"The Combinatorial Conspiracy" will be presented by Walter Moos of
Chiron Corporation at 11 a.m. in the Pitzer Auditorium, Latimer Hall.

SPECIAL BLDG. ENERGY SEMINAR

"Energy Efficiency as a Guiding Principle in the Bldg. Design Process"
will be presented by Lennart Jagemar of Chalmers University of Technology in
Gothenburg, Sweden, at noon in Bldg. 90-3148.

SURFACE SCIENCE AND CATALYSIS SCIENCE SEMINAR

"New Materials and Transducers for Chemical Sensors" will be presented
by Wolfgang Goepel of the University of Tuebingen, Germany, at 1:30 p.m. in the
Bldg. 66 Auditorium.

PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY SEMINAR

"Frontiers of Electronic Structure Theory" will be presented by Martin
Head-Gordon of UCB at 4 p.m. in the Pitzer Auditorium, Latimer Hall.

WED., SEPT. 4

EMPLOYEE MUSIC CLUB

Folk Group Rehearsal, 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the cafeteria, for info. contact
Larry Bell at X5406.

THURS., SEPT. 5

SURFACE SCIENCE AND CATALYSIS SCIENCE SEMINAR

"Nitride and Carbide Hard Coatings" will be presented by Marie-Paule
Delplancke of LBNL/Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, at 1:30 p.m. in the
Bldg. 66 Auditorium.

FRI., SEPT. 6

INORGANIC CHEMISTRY SEMINAR

"Thermodynamically Unstable Fluorides and their Remarkable Oxidizing
Properties" will be presented by Neil Bartlett of LBNL/UCB at 4 p.m. in the
Pitzer Auditorium, Latimer Hall.

The food service area of the cafeteria will be closed on Friday, Aug. 30, as
part of a Labor Day weekend facelift. To replace the regular food service that
day, the cafeteria will offer a picnic-style box lunch in the dining area
during lunch hours. The Peabody Coffee Shop will be open as usual. No breakfast
will be served that day.

The $4 box lunch will consist of southern fried chicken, coleslaw, potato
salad, and dinner roll. Assorted sandwiches ($3), sodas ($1), and salads ($1)
will also be available; no sales tax will be added.

The purpose of the remodeling is to streamline the salad bar in order to make
more room, allow people to use both sides of the bar, and speed up service. The
soup and potato bar will be placed in a separate area and the beverage machines
will be moved next to the cash registers.

The work will take four days to complete and the cafeteria will reopen for
regular service on Tuesday, Sept. 3.

VANPOOL, from the Tri-Valley area - Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon,
(San Ramon riders can be reimbursed for 1/2 their cost & can receive a $50
voucher for other riders from these areas), we need 1-2 more riders. Philip,
X6583

Due to the large volume of ads received each week, ads are accepted only from
LBNL employees, retirees, and on-site DOE personnel. No other ads will be
accepted. We encourage past contributors to the Flea Market to use other local
services, such as LBNL's online housing listing (call X6198 for information),
and the UC Housing Office.

Please note also:

The deadline for ads is 5 p.m. Friday for the following week's issue.

Ads must be submitted in writing, via e-mail (fleamarket@lbl.gov), fax
(X6641), or delivery/mail to Bldg. 65B. No ads will be taken over the phone.

No ads will be accepted without your name, affiliation, Lab extension, and
home telephone number. You may ask that only one number appear in the ad.

Only items of your own personal property may be offered for sale.

Ads for material for resale in connection with a business will not be
accepted.

No ads for services will be taken.

Ads will run one week only unless resubmitted in writing. Ads will be
repeated only as space permits, and at the discretion of Currents. If an
item does not sell in a reasonable time period, we retain the right to
terminate the ad.

Currents/The View and the Communications Department Staff

Published once a month by the Communications Department for the employees and retirees of Berkeley Lab.